19-06-2001 19:07									#1
	ACEdit Support Apolyton

Acedit is a faction editor program. You can get it at the modification section downloads. In the program, you can type in a morale modifier for the faction you are creating. If I wanted to boost the morale to %50 then the morale modifier would be %50???

	20-06-2001 17:39									#2
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In the context of a faction editor, "morale modifier" may also refer to a modifier to the faction's social engineering value for Morale. The Spartans have a +2 modifier of that kind and its effect on units' morale level (and as a result on the percentage modifier to combat strength we talked about in the other thread) can be taken from the Social Effects section in the Datalinks.

	21-06-2001 13:02									#3
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A short answer:
If your faction's troops (the soldiers themselves, ignoring the equipment for the moment) would be unusually good, give the faction a +1 or +2 morale rating; if they would be unusually poor, give it a -1 rating; if they'd be really dreadful, give it -2; otherwise don't give the faction any particular morale modifier.

The actual ratings of particular units will vary according to circumstances; for example, infantry built in bases with command centres will have better morale than those built in bases without, and your faction's SE settings will also have an effect. A faction with +2 morale running Power (also +2 morale) and building army units in command centres will have get elite units (+50% and an extra move); a faction with +4 morale would get the same benefits without running Power.

A more complete answer:
(Which is long because I don't know how much you already know). Morale in the real world is primarily used to talk about the fighting spirit of military units - units which are enthusiastic about the prospect of fighting are considered to have high morale, while units which are reluctant to fight are considered to have low morale. When a real world military unit loses all of its morale (is de-morale-ized), its members flee or surrender en masse.

In Civ II, there was a limited concept of morale: some units were Veterans, and they had a bonus in combat.

In SMAC, the concept of morale is developed much further: not only does every unit have a morale level, but so does your faction as a whole. Units can have (basically) 6 different levels of morale, ranging from the lowest (very green) to the highest (elite); low-morale units get penalties in combat while high-morale units get bonuses. In addition, elite units get an extra move, which doesn't matter so much for ships but is crucial for rovers and especially infantry.

The only reason your factional morale matters is in the way it effects your units. All other things being equal, units built when factional morale is high have higher morale, those built when it is low have lower morale. (Certain facilities and a unit enhancement effect the morale of units built in them, e.g. naval yards for sea units, while probe teams and native life forms are not effected by your faction's morale level at all.) If your factional morale goes up enough (due to a change in SE settings), the morale of all your units goes up, and vice-versa.

Factional morale is based on your SE settings (Power is good while Wealth is bad, for instance) and on any special bonuses your faction has. Out of the standard factions, only 3 have exceptional morale: the Spartans (+2), the Usurpers (+1), and the Gaians (-1). You can see these settings in the game if you go into the SE screen (the one you reach by pressing "e"). I'm guessing that this is what ACEdit is talking about when it mentions morale; if I'm right and you load these factions in ACEdit then you should see these morale modifiers.

I don't know whether there is any additional benefit to running morale above +4 or additional penalty to ratings lower than -4, so as Power gives you +2 morale you can see where giving a faction better than +2 morale would make the Power setting not very useful for it...

	22-06-2001 02:22									#4
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Actually, I believe ACEdit directly modifies the morale of a individual unit. That would be setting the units morale anywhere from Very Green (-25%?) to Elite (+50%). IIRC you can also check a little box to indicate that the unit has already recieved a morale upgrade from a monolith.

What I don't know is what happens to that units morale if you later change the SE settings for the faction. Is it fixed, or will that change the morale you set in the beginning?